Girls Gone Canon Cast - ASOIAF Episode 168 — AGOT Bran IV

Episode Date: September 23, 2022

When Bran wakes, the world is different, as is his body. A visitor interrupts storytime with a thoughtful gift. --- Eliana's twitter: https://twitter.com/arhythmetric Eliana's reddit account: ...https://www.reddit.com/user/glass_table_girl Eliana's blog: https://themanyfacedblog.wordpress.com/ Chloe's twitter: https://twitter.com/liesandarbor Chloe's blog: www.liesandarborgold.com Intro by Anton Langhage

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 Hello and welcome to Girls Gone Canon Reads A Song of ice and fire episode 168 bran a game of thrones for i am one of your hosts chloe and i am another one of your hosts eliana 168 just one more to go just one more to go and we're packing up the podcast one plus nice nice that's it that's done oh my gosh brand four brand for a game of thrones such innocent times short times swift times but the innocence is quickly fleeting as we see i really love that every brand episode is a banger for me because I just sit here like sad. A bringer? Oh my god, no. Bringers and mash. I was thinking that and I'm glad you said it first. It's pretty good. I'm into it. Agreed, agreed. Welcome back to Bran Stark. Before we jump in with Bran, let's do some housekeeping. Eliana, we've done it. My god, we have we have chosen a patreon episode a bonus episode for
Starting point is 00:01:26 patrons in the stranger tier five dollar tier and above for this month yes to the surprise of no one perhaps we have chosen to continue our series milfs sorry mothers of the dragon also affectionately called milfs of the dragon yeah part two aliceanne aliceanne had a lot of kids so we feel like this is fine this feels like the milf of the dragon we talk about rainies and how her bloodline truly could be the line that trickles on through right that she could be the mother of the dragon of the bloodline but aliceanne is very much the milf of the dragon i mean definitely can fill a whole episode on this i have lots of lots of aliceanne thoughts absolutely and i mean i guess that means we'll talk about jahari's a little but
Starting point is 00:02:16 boo we're mostly talking about aliceanne all right because jahari's is just not a milf i don't even think he's a doILF. Hallelujah, sister. Hallelujah. He's not a feminist king like Maekor. Oh my god. For more hits like these, you can head over to our Patreon at patreon.com slash girlsgoncanon.
Starting point is 00:02:38 Stranger Tearing Up gets some bonus episodes every month. A new one. Great back catalog to check out, so head over there. And there are some other things going on every Friday, we have a discussion in our discord channel for patrons in the thunder tier and above $10 and up. This is hosted by our friend Maddie, who talks about the most recent episode of hot D. We all chit chat in the voice chat and in the the text chat too so we don't be rude when someone else is talking i have to learn that you know it's a skill really not to talk over
Starting point is 00:03:11 people i talk over you every day really i talk maybe i guess yeah i also just like using the chat because i don't know i just like using the chat now that i figured out that it exists step one find the chat step two and yeah and also along with our hot d discussions hot discussions oh my god from two to four from two to four et uh we also have our monthly brunch slash happy hours and september's unfortunately has already occurred but don't worry there will be another one in october on a date yet to be determined it's coming though yeah come and stay tuned to these episodes to find out more and speaking of these episodes next week we are probably gonna take a week off from Bran because we have been Branning so hard.
Starting point is 00:04:06 Oh, God, so hard. We have been so, like, fallen from that tower every week. And we are doing weekly House of the Dragon episodes. If you're not watching the show, that's probably popping up in your feed. Sorry. But if you are watching the show, I hope you're enjoying it because we are having a blast. And every Monday, patrons in any tier get the episode sometimes it's very late at night but you will get that episode monday night and tuesdays everybody
Starting point is 00:04:33 gets it public gets it our recaps every week our hottest takes on the d absolutely and i mean just because brand hasn't learned to fly yet, doesn't mean we haven't. Because there's a lot of dragons flying on the dragon show. This one actually is a dragon show. I like dragon show. Yeah, dragon tales, dragon tales. I feel like Ara would appreciate this discussion on dragon tales. I love, we love dragon tales and we're going to get into some Dragon Tales today.
Starting point is 00:05:06 But next week, we will probably be releasing a previously recorded episode with a big thanks to Girls Gone Canon patrons, a previously released bonus episode, and that will be a surprise. So keep an eye on your feed for next week, Friday, September 30th, 2022, for the historians out there. Yeah, that is the date that it will be. Huh. Huh. Huh.
Starting point is 00:05:33 Huh. Huh. But if you do want new content, again, we have Mills of the Dragon Part 2 coming out on Patreon. So I got called out last week. No, I didn't want to talk about it. Because I was all like, oh, we don't have any emails for brand three. And so thankfully, thank you everyone for stepping up and sending us emails and tweets of note this week. A lot of you had things to say regarding the cornversation
Starting point is 00:06:07 that Chloe and I had. I regret nothing. For example, our friend Tana wrote in saying, corn on the cob, colonels, sells it for me. You didn't want to read the score? No, that seemed rude. She said Chloe equals one. Eliana correct about literally
Starting point is 00:06:26 everything else which is true i don't know that that's true i mean that's true too it might be true according to rosie cotton first of all our friend rosie cotton on twitter wrote in aka at she's peg bundy did write in to say that barley can be grains, that it has three parts of the grain kernel, the bran, shut up, Eliana, the endosperm, and germ. Okay, shut up, Eliana, again. I'm seeing all the- I think that's just germ, but yeah.
Starting point is 00:06:56 The germ. The germ. It is. Oh my god, isn't it George's birthday today? Yeah, today. Happy birthday, George. Oh my god, happy birthday, George. During recording.
Starting point is 00:07:03 Happy birthday. Born today. Happy birthday, George. Oh my god, happy birthday, George. During recording. Happy birthday. Born today. Anyways, basically saying yes, Barley is fucking called Colonels 2, thus disproving my point.
Starting point is 00:07:18 However, I would like to put one very final rebuttal in before I call trial by combat. Which is, I still think I'm right. I still think I'm right. Because I didn't come up with that idea. Some person on reddit who knows more about barley didn't well good game of thrones good game of thrones friend we'll always we'll always have heron hall yeah this is a corn spiracy oh my god have you been waiting all day for that i've been waiting a week to say that like from the moment that like we got tana's email i was like i'm gonna say corn spiracy i'm gonna say
Starting point is 00:07:49 corn spiracy on the podcast uh according to tana according to us i'm gonna sip my drink not worry about the clinking ice while chloe puts her head down drink not worry about the clinking ice while chloe puts her head down so thank you so much rosie cotton for your tweet because i am a team player thank you tana i always love hearing from you love you too tana love you rosie good game everyone of thrones no that was you know i'm sorry i was so aggressive to you eliana no no look at look at look at all the fun we're having okay so so again because uh yeah thunderclap is the one who said i sounded thirsty for emails so i'm glad that a lot of people wrote in this week and we actually read a little bit of some of the other emails on our haunt d episode so please check that out because not everything was for bran this one actually we're i don't know we might also bring
Starting point is 00:08:49 this up during the hot d episode because what thunderclap said kind of had aspects that could fit into either bran or into house of the dragon but there's a thunderclap wrote in with a lot of interesting stuff regarding lord of the rings and the one, which I know you're going to bring up some Loader stuff. Loader-on. Loader. Loader-on in the episode. But it was kind of an idea of like, here's how Victarion can still win, but not exactly.
Starting point is 00:09:15 Oh, we love a good Victarion email. Yeah, yeah. We might have to save it, you know, too. We might have to save some of that, I think. For later on. For another. Sorry, Loader-on. For a Loader POV episode. but not lord of the rings sorry please do not misunderstand that is not what we're
Starting point is 00:09:31 covering i tried i tried folks rings of power i tried to get her to wait neither of us have read the series i don't want to take that back everyone today 9 20 2022, 2022. 9-20, blaze it. 9-20, blaze it. I have started the ring books. Oh, so you're on chapter one now. Nope, I'm still in the prologue. I'm finishing the prologue, and I know I could skip ahead, but at this point, it's just I fail if I skip ahead.
Starting point is 00:10:00 And I just haven't had a lot of time. So I'm working on it. I might understand some of these things a little more soon you never know you never know i we don't know but some here's something that i thought was fun that thunderclap said ps if i chose your demons they would have been a koala and the llama then we could have koala bear and an ellie llama and i actually thought that was interesting because you know one of the names that uh one of my usernames slash nicknames that some of my friends call me is in fact associated with a llama. So you are not wrong, Thunderclap.
Starting point is 00:10:32 I love it. I love it. How do you feel about a koala? I'm not sure. I don't know. But I like that they're very fuzzy and possibly mean. They really like getting high off eucalyptus too. Was that what it meant? It's fine, you can leaveptus too. Was that what it meant? It's fine, you can leave it in, but is that what it meant? No, I think it had to do with your name. And also, yeah, they are cute and fuzzy and cuddly.
Starting point is 00:10:54 And like eucalyptus. Hmm. Hmm. I see what you people think of me. And then, of course, our friend Brandon. The Brandon that Eliana mentioned a few episodes not the same brandon as i mean it might be yeah not the same brandon of course that would be insane but maybe it is the same brandon maybe it's not the same moon that would be insane be insane and brandon
Starting point is 00:11:16 says speaking of moons the moon was a crescent and i wanted to say thank you for the shout out for answering my questions i love bringing out those worst hypotheticals in Eliana, seeing her get fired. I'm not Brandon Stark, but maybe he's warging into me because he says he likes blackberries and climbing, which I love blackberries. I'm happy to follow a character that shares my namesake, but his story is one of the most interesting
Starting point is 00:11:39 in A Song of Ice and Fire and I'm glad to finally be here with you. I know Sans and Catelyn are not the next POVs. Are you sure? I mean, it could be. You girls are on a mission. It's an incredible mission. George Railroad Martin, God bless him.
Starting point is 00:11:52 Happy birthday. Happy birthday. Chose to tell this story through multiple perspectives and I know he wanted readers to find joy in not only reading a story, but in rereading. The character reread is the best way to immerse yourself in thoughts and feelings of these characters that said chloe don't don't apologize for organic upset reactions interesting
Starting point is 00:12:11 she's had a lot of those already we haven't even started the podcast i'm trying this is your podcast eliana's too oh maybe and you're allowed to feel and say what you want he says he's not here just for the character analysis, but also to understand how the characters make my friends feel. Like raising the idea of Summer dying in the very first Bran chapter, which Eliana didn't really like. Mm-mm. No.
Starting point is 00:12:35 Also knows that Nauticast combined one and two, but... In ASOS. In ASOS, yes. But that he expects me to do one single episode and i think he's right there definitely right there what if we just split it into like a bunch of episodes what if we unprecedented unprecedented ask poor quentin finally and then the last thing that brandon has is he talks about how i mentioned i would love to have seen jamie and cersei's escape after pushing brand out the window and how they got away and hit it and wants to know what other extended chapter conclusions we might like to see. He wants to see
Starting point is 00:13:10 the awkward boat ride with Davos and Melisandre after she births the shadow baby. I think some of the extended chapter things that I'd love to see are the end of what happens after the Dance of Dragons Daenerys 10. Oh I thought thought you were just going to say the books. I was like... Well, that is the joke that I'm kind of making, right? Oh, right. Except I don't remember the other chapter numbers. Like, what is it for Jon? Like, 11? 9? 13, I thought.
Starting point is 00:13:35 Oh, is it 13? Anyway, pretend I... Unlucky. Pretend I successfully made that joke and landed it, everyone. I'd love to know what happens after what um a dance of dragons barison 2 actually technically we have that from the winds chapters i would love to see that's a really good question maybe something with an ren chapter or maybe the arrest of the sand snakes would be one I would like to actually see
Starting point is 00:14:06 and how each reacts to being taken and I guess that would maybe be through Ario's eyes yeah yeah that might be one I would like to see or possibly it's hard I don't want to cheat and say obviously like the last chapters to the next chapters I want to you know think about the ones that we already kind of have and etch in some of that detail but i'm trying for me it's also like i'm trying to remember exactly like how some of these end so that's part of the difficulty for me too davos is a great character to look at that one one's a really smart one to want. Yeah, a lot of those chapters just have so much in between that happens. That's true. I would love to get something before Rikken, but I don't know.
Starting point is 00:14:53 That would be a whole new character. That doesn't count. That doesn't count. Maybe right after I Dreamed of You. Oh, yeah. Interesting. That ride would be very interesting indeed just anime blushing the whole time
Starting point is 00:15:07 they spoke not very often through the night but when they did glances knowing glances exchanged yeah you know their hearts melting becoming one blah blah blah puke puke puke forged like two steel blades alongside one another
Starting point is 00:15:24 I want to know like post-epilogue what i would love is like them once they escape the situation they're in because they have to survive together at least for a little bit so i can't wait for that george i want wins i'm sorry i'm so sorry to ask what about yeah what about like after maybe maybe speaking of like things that could be funny and awkward right the the extended after brienne shouts sword right are they like all right everyone pack it up get their heads out of the noose oh my god get them down yeah like what is it must be like so we should adapt this as a comedy people being hanged but not hanged yackety sax playing actually um lots to think on thank you so much brandon for the email i really
Starting point is 00:16:14 love that i definitely i think sand snakes is definitely a great idea to see some of those comings and goings they just gotta cut down podrick leave him alone leave him alone well we're gonna leave podrick alone and get into our lightning round of what you missed between a game of thrones 3 brand and a game of thrones 4 brand starting with catalin 4 cat and roerick meet with Peter Baelish, who says the Cat Spa dagger is owned by Tyrion Lannister. Boo. Boo. Liar. Jon III.
Starting point is 00:16:56 Jon learns a tough lesson through his brothers of the Watch and Donald Noy. He meets with Tyrion, and then learns Bran has awakened from the Lord Commander. Exciting. Eddard IV. Ned learns a new part of his job, party planning. He also wants to beat the shit out of Littlefinger for breathing near his wife, but also he gets to
Starting point is 00:17:12 see his wife, because Ned is a wife guy. He is. Except for when it comes to his son. Not son. Son's not son. Yeah. Tyrion 3. While many of his kin are bastards john snow is the first that tyrian can call friend it's true a lot of his kin were bastards maybe more than he knows
Starting point is 00:17:34 aria too ned helps aria make a change in her life for the better by hiring her a personal master at arms. Daenerys too. Daenerys stands up to her brother for the first time and then takes Khal Drogo. Sexually. Yeah, it's quite a chapter. Finally, we're at Bran IV. Bran is called to the Great Hall to receive Tyrion Lannister who provides a blueprint for a saddle that Bran might be able to one day ride a horse with. Hmm. Rickon runs with the wolves below, having a great time.
Starting point is 00:18:09 His own wolf had grown, his eyes green fire, his fur dark. Interesting. Summer comes last, though. His fur is silver and smoke with eyes of yellow gold that saw all there was to see. And Bran thinks that he's the smartest of the litter. He listens to his brothers laughing and running and is angry his eyes are wet he's eight years old and he feels like everything is a lie it is that's that is true but especially because he can't fly he says
Starting point is 00:18:36 he can't even run and old nan says all crows are liars and tries to comfort him with a story but brand doesn't want that story so he's just kind of piss him off now and he definitely hates her stories now and it's all it's it's like sad and frustrating you're like don't be mean to old nan but you also kind of really understand where he's coming from right he's very young and he's frustrated and externalizing all that onto old man who gets it she takes it in stride yeah because she's just as much kind of a prisoner in her body there as he is as we'll talk about and i don't know the beginning of this chapter is so sad it's laced with bitterness
Starting point is 00:19:13 and resentment and the utter frustration at not being able to do the things that everyone else around you can do easily like physically he cannot even try to push himself to do so it is impossible it is horrible and hard each of the actions that he takes in this chapter until you know until he kind of breaks his resolve a little bit they're just soaked in this hollow anger in the front this feeling of hopelessness that his brothers below will all run and leave him and abandon him which they do they will they kind of have to in the plot but it's not because of his disability right it's not because of his inability but that's his greatest fear and like also his greatest envy that he has to bear that he has to live with when it comes to them right
Starting point is 00:19:56 like he's so scared that everybody's going to leave him because he feels useless and worthless and then those dreams become a reality quite literally and figuratively because he feels useless and worthless and then those dreams become a reality quite literally and figuratively because he starts having the green dreams as well like that's got to be a very hard time as a kid and this exasperation and all of these maybe cures or maybe little things that can make him feel better or operate better it starts to make you distrust people right like he has these dreams from a crow that says well i'm gonna give you something better because you're suffering i'm gonna give you a bigger gift and that's flying and he's like but i can't like i'm still stuck in this bed every day being carted
Starting point is 00:20:35 around by people with no bodily autonomy tyrian offering an aid for him to ride his horse in this chapter at the end of the chapter he almost feels like a piece of hope, right? To propel him forward with. And that's really important because that hope can bloom even in the coldest of places and feelings for Bran right now. Yeah, and it comes from someone that they don't expect that kindness to come from. And also, I like what you're saying about, you know, these maybe cures and how it causes you to distrust people and lose hope because, I don't know, people keep coming up with these things.
Starting point is 00:21:10 They're like, oh, this will make you better. This will make you better. And unfortunately, when it comes to disability and illness, I mean, that's the thing, right? Like a lot of times you're presented with a cure and you keep trying it and you keep hoping it'll get better and it doesn't always. It's weird because there's something interesting in the way, I don't know, like thinking about like going to a bajillion doctors over and over trying to figure out what the hell's wrong with you, which isn't something Bram has to do, but it's something I've done before and like just that each one is more and more disheartening. Each one you're like, nothing is ever going to change.
Starting point is 00:21:45 I am going to exist like this forever. And I'm going to be a burden to everybody that I love and that loves me. And like, that's probably a lot of what Bran's feeling right now. And as somebody that young, that takes a toll on you. Yeah, absolutely. And he hasn't fully internalized that yet. But we do see him start to do that and to get to that point in this story. That hasn't sink in yet in this chapter, but the things you're saying, like, obviously they do happen.
Starting point is 00:22:14 We'll dig into that later on. Oh my God. Well, Old Nan says that these stories that he hates are not her stories. She's been at Winterfell forever. There are other stories. Even Ned remembers her from in his youth. She had come to the castle as a wet nurse for a Brandon whose mother died birthing him. An older brother or younger brother of Bran's grandfather, maybe, or even another generation beyond that. I don't have the exact tree and I'm sure it's probably somewhere in like, I don't know,
Starting point is 00:22:44 the World of Ice and Fire or the Wiki or something. But I guess the assumption would probably be that it is a younger brother of Rickard based on what we saw of the pattern. Remember you were in the lightning round you put together before the Brandons were the firstborn son until Rickard's son Brandon. A lot of them started becoming the second sons or later ones. Yeah, and having to take different positions outside. Carving a different path as Bran might be wont to do.
Starting point is 00:23:12 Until he becomes a king. The king in the south. Really mixing things up. Nan had stayed on at Winterfell. This bummed me out. forgot about this her sons die during king robert's war and her grandson is killed in pike during the grayjoy rebellion
Starting point is 00:23:32 and her daughters long ago married moved and died so all that's left of her own blood is hodor the simple-minded giant who works in the stables but old nan just lived on and on doing her needlework and telling her stories so sad and she's hodor's great-grandmother we get told in this chapter great-grandmother so realistically there's like a 70 year span that she could have fucked dunk is what i'm trying to tell you and i'm pulling pulling out my timeline right now. Do you hear the rustling of paper? You know, I'm arranging the map. I'm placing pinpoints.
Starting point is 00:24:09 I'm like, here are the ways that old man fucked Duncan where they were. Here's how old Dan can still win. She can. Number one, old man has won. Absolutely. Here's how old man could still be alive and not dead at the dread fort.
Starting point is 00:24:23 Yeah. I mean, absolutely. And. Cause she fucked. Yeah, I mean, absolutely. And because she fucked on. I kind of, yeah, I forgot that she lost so many of her children in like all these wars, right? Like the wars that the crown, it has taken so much from her. And yeah, I mean, that's insane that she outlives her daughters. What do they die from?
Starting point is 00:24:41 I guess it, you know, George didn't think that far. But it reminds me also of Alysan and living all of her children and i don't know it's just so sad because also at the same time you're seeing that bran is taking out his frustrations on the old nan um and part of it is because he wakes up and his family isn't here anymore and that's literally old nan's life yeah yeah he's it's very sad she's already lived that this is her now yeah someday that might be you with only stories left to tell oh shit interesting but also yeah that that's part of i guess why she's so understanding but again yeah because she's old too i mean once we get you know as as an older woman you might understand yeah absolutely i'm like oh that's cute you know as an older woman with lived experience
Starting point is 00:25:31 yeah that's me um decrepit you're not i'm sorry you're not you're not you're not that old so Bran claims out of spite that he hates the stories he wants his parents, he wants to run to ride his pony but they had all left him, all of them as we're discussing and it's actually I think a really powerful moment the way that Bran's story
Starting point is 00:26:00 also goes, right? he wakes up, he himself hasn't changed mentally because he's still a child. He enters this coma and this dream in which he's flying. But turns out he awakens and the entire world around him has. Half the people are gone or more.
Starting point is 00:26:19 And also his body is different. And that also impacts then the way that he moves throughout this world that has changed and brand's reaction to waking and finding everything gone actually reminds me of a few sad legends for example uh rip van winkle and its many iterations before and after in which you know this guy falls asleep for a long ass time wakes up and he's like uh it's been 57 years what and a lot of the people that he knew are gone and dead but also it reminds me of the the irish legend of ashene returning from ternanog which is also like this fairyland this
Starting point is 00:26:58 land of youth he goes there he does like cool heroic things marries a fairy queen princess named neve which is not spelled the way that you would think it would be spelled and uh spend some like a few days there right and then he's like i want to go back and see my family and it's been only i don't know the span of like seven days over and over and then when he returns because time flows differently in Tirnanog it's been 300 years back home and the Fianna like the Fian people are all gone
Starting point is 00:27:36 and everyone's super small because they're not cool like magical big people anymore like he was and he returns on this like special horse and nothing is the same about the home that he's left behind even though it doesn't feel like it's been a long time at all he's the same person but then he's not supposed to get off his horse he falls off it because he's trying to help these people he's like oh my god these poor ass people they're so small and weak
Starting point is 00:28:01 and then he falls off and he's not supposed to touch the ground and then suddenly ages 300 years and then dies wow okay so you just stuffed a lot in that last sentence yeah processing if everyone can give me a moment to process yeah yeah man bummer for all bummer for all uh Now that I've processed, thank you for the moment. I just needed more. You're right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I definitely, you know, some of that kind of folklore is seen played again in stories like Tuck Everlasting, with the idea of the fountain of youth and eternal youth and innocence and innocence lost and all those little themes being played against one another.
Starting point is 00:28:45 So I love that with the land of youth. And there's definitely something very Doran-like for Bran, right? Like Bran becoming Lord kind of accidentally in a way that everybody just dies, and he's now the Lord of Winterfell. And Doran obviously was just born first, and his siblings were unlikely to you know he he had these great siblings that did great things and then they both die and what does he say you know yeah they are gone and here i am here i sit yeah and bran you know he wakes up and everyone's leaving yeah but i just got here and he's like i was on a hell of a fucking trip let me tell you and now
Starting point is 00:29:26 i'm here and you're all gone yeah he's like wait we were having there was a party everyone was here i was having a great time very jarring yeah lewin had sent birds to his family for him but the birds hadn't returned lewin said sometimes the birds get lost or maybe they haven't reached them yet it's a long way away but to bran it feels like they all died while he slept or perhaps he died and they forgot him well that's that's kind of interesting that's to come yeah that's soon well there's a way that it kind of feels like this is in a way one of a rebirth for him right because uh that is a big ongoing thing for the starks and even like rebirth in a metaphorical sense for like sans and aria i mean every single one of them get a rebirth it reminds me very much um
Starting point is 00:30:18 also yes but it does remind me very much of up the wolves by the mountain goats a very important piece of analysis our mother has been absent ever since we founded rome but there's gonna be a party when the wolf comes home i mean it's the great rebirthening you know the great they disappear and they come back glorious because they are the only people I like that stars. I'm just kidding. I like other characters. I do like some. Yeah, I was like, that's not true. That's not true. I know you like a lot of characters. Unfortunately, I love them all
Starting point is 00:30:54 like they're my own children. Especially after we go through all the POVs. We come out of it and we're like, wow, I really like that character. I can't wait for Victarion. I want to see if I change. You know? What, is he not your son? Stupidly? Absolutely not. I can't wait for Victarion. I want to see if I change, you know. What, is he not your son? Stupidly?
Starting point is 00:31:07 Absolutely not. I would not give birth to that. Everyone from the castle that he knew was gone too. Only Rickett and Rob remained and Rob had changed. Now he's Rob the Lord, wearing a real sword, never smiling. His days consisting of training and drilling while Bran watches. Sometimes Rob has gone for days visiting Holdfasts and Lords. Rickon would cry then and ask Bran if he was ever coming back.
Starting point is 00:31:36 Even when he was home at Winterfell, Rob the Lord seemed to have more time for Halas Mullen and Theon Greyjoy than he ever did for his brothers. Another resentment. time for Halas Mullen and Theon Greyjoy than he ever did for his brothers. Aww. Another resentment. Yeah. I guess that's like... I have never experienced this. This chapter is the closest thing to siblings, I think, that I understand. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:31:56 Like, you know, when the older sibling is just like, you're in different life stages. But also, Rob's obviously having a hard time. And then also, you know, even for time and then also you know even for Bran wanting to you know both sides of the coin I've experienced neither of these but even from here there's such a great change right like he starts this chapter in such a
Starting point is 00:32:17 mindset of like loathing and like not self loathing especially yeah and not being able to process those emotions and Tyrrian showing up with the saddle and realizing that his life isn't fucking over like he thought it was there's a little hope and then rob coming to him and showing a little bit of vulnerability right and even passing that torch saying i'm trying to be strong and i'm sorry because it's obviously showing and
Starting point is 00:32:43 you have to too now. This is it. I mean this is the passing of the torch for him to Bran. This is really where it all From Rob to Bran? Yeah from Rob to Bran. At the end of the chapter he's pressing a little bit of his pain into him with his kiss of love. Not in a mean way just in a
Starting point is 00:33:01 I'm sharing the load but we have to grow up now. You share the load. These are the things I know from lord of the rings oh my god but here you know he's immature i mean he's like yeah rob has more time for halas and theon and he has this little resentment build but by the end of the chapter like he knows that his brother loves him and his brother is just taking his duty he's got a lot rob has got a lot on his shoulders you know and obviously bran is also dealing with a lot right and he's dealing with it alone and none of them can necessarily relate to what he's going through i mean he's parenting rickon yeah i mean also bran in this chapter you know because rickon
Starting point is 00:33:43 comes crying to him going where's rob Rob? Yeah, both of them. Why does no one talk to me? Yeah, that's true. I'm bad. I mean, literally, I'm Bobi. I'm Bobi. Oh, my God. So Old Nan offers to tell Bran the story of Bran the Builder, saying it was his favorite.
Starting point is 00:33:59 And Bran knew the story. He's like, I don't think that's my favorite. I think you've got that wrong. Which happens to me all the time. Especially me yeah people are like i think this is your favorite and i'm like i don't know where you got that idea that's not true at all uh he wonders if she means a different brandon and sometimes she spoke as if he were her brandon the one that was killed by the mad king which is so sad fuck the line goes she had lived so long mother had told him once that all the brandon starks had become one person in her head and that seems a very
Starting point is 00:34:35 interesting like if all of the frays and lannisters became one person in someone's head who was on a revenge killing spree yeah you're thinking about the TV. No, I'm joking. Also Lannisters. Oh, yeah, yeah. And like where every Lannister, even now, like Tyrion. That's a great point. That's a really good thought of like the flattening of, you know,
Starting point is 00:34:59 morals and also of time, trauma, etc. Yeah, loss, horror. Damn. All I had was a joke about all the Brandons being one and as an avatar state he could access. But I mean, I liked your thought better. I like yours because it's actually true though. Like that is what it is, right?
Starting point is 00:35:20 Like think of all the green seers and the network of seers and how like all the information. Isn't this just what crypto is? No, but it is like the internet, but it's not like crypto. Oh, okay. So it's like file sharing though. It's like torrenting, right? It's like bear shear or lime wire where it's taking a little bit from everybody's hosting
Starting point is 00:35:36 servers, a tiny bit of information to piece together all the information. Glimpses from each of the trees. The trees are servers. Oh yeah. Yeah. It is a little like torrenting, I guess. It's rearwood.net. Torrent Stark.
Starting point is 00:35:49 Torrent Stark. Isn't King Torrent Stark the king who knelt? The king who downloaded? Yeah, the king who downloaded and went down on his knee. Torrent Stark. Bran's favorite stories were the scary ones he says and old nan's like all right
Starting point is 00:36:07 i'm gonna fuck your life up with fear kid what do you know of fear me nothing i don't do scary stories me either but it is the mind killer so she tells him of the others of the white walkers moving through the wood the long night that came over the land where kings shivered and died in their castles. Women smothered their children rather than let them starve, and tears froze upon all their cheeks. She asks him if he's sure this was his favorite story, and he reluctantly says yes. She tells him when the others came for the first time how they hunted maids and men alike on their pale dead horses, eating children children so i love that old nan has just basically given us a summary of a song of ice and fire uh but with a few things a little wrong a few details it's not women smothering their children it's uh women smothering their
Starting point is 00:36:57 undead husbands and well girls really kings dying people hunting maids you know you know also bran loving these stories and these adventures and it's very much of course they be careful what you wish for and also as many people pointed out old man stories like these these legends they're like full of kind of half truths right it gets them a bit right but with a twist the others turns out don't steal don't eat children but they do steal them it kind of makes me think of fairies a little yeah like almost like you know having the changeling child yeah exactly which then you have later obviously child switching in general oh we do have the baby switch interesting lots of baby swapping monster yeah life for death and shit oh is john the king
Starting point is 00:37:46 shivering and dying in his castle like brand saw in his vision oh i was wondering i was thinking like that felt real real real real real real real so real so yeah dumb shit she says this was before the andals came before the women fled the roin when the hundred kingdoms were kingdoms of the first men though stolen from the children of the forest who now live in woods and hills watching through the trees so as cold and death filled the earth the last hero determined to seek out the children in the hopes that their ancient magics could win back what the armies of men had lost, he set out into the deadlands with a sword, a horse, a dog, and a dozen companions. For years he searched until he despaired of ever finding the children of the forest in their secret cities.
Starting point is 00:38:44 One by one his friends died, and his horse, and finally, even his dog. And his sword froze so hard, the blade snapped when he tried to use it, and the others smelled the hot blood in him and came silent on his trail, stalking him with packs of pale white spiders, on his trail, stalking him with packs of pale white spiders big as hounds. The door opened with a bang and Bran's heart leapt up into his mouth in sudden fear. But it was only Maester Luwin, with Hodor looming in the stairway behind him. Hodor, the stable boy announced, as was his custom, smiling hugely at them all. Maester lewin was not smiling oh noes so i just want to go back to this one part of this quote eliana can you reread this for me really quick because i just want um and his sword froze so hard the blade snapped oh so you're just
Starting point is 00:39:40 not gonna do the first i do not see it i do not see it. I do not see it, Chloe. It's okay, because I would have to admit all his friends are going to die to concede this point to you. I'm learning. I can't argue with you in these episodes. It's us. We're his friends. We're going to die. We are dying.
Starting point is 00:40:04 I love Old Man as the storyteller archetype, right? One of the oldest and greatest storytelling devices in fairy tale, folk tales, mythology, legends, fables, all of them. I mean, let's go all the way back to the first piece of fiction ever written. The first thing that happened. Year one. Right? Year one. Jesus. Historically speaking.
Starting point is 00:40:23 Would it go back further? There were other people telling stories then, too. We don't know. Not till Jesus. Historically speaking. Would it go back further? There were other people telling stories then, too. We don't know. Not till Jesus. Oh my god. So, let's go all the way back to Jesus. God, he was a huge storyteller. That guy had stories.
Starting point is 00:40:33 Did you say Jesus God? He was a huge storyteller. Yeah, I did. I'm sorry. Forgive me, Father. You didn't even mean to do that. Forgive me, Father. You didn't even mean to do that.
Starting point is 00:40:42 I'm sad. Let's go back to Jesus. Let's go back even earlier than that you have someone even earlier than jesus in this yeah bilbo yeah god i hope that took place here right that's what i've been told about this universe so bilbo and lord of the rings is a storyteller i mean he tells a vast majority of some of the story and you know she also reminds me a bit of disc world i think it's book 27 it could be any of them my god there's so many and i've read a good amount of the last hero is the story the character is the minstrel who's a storyteller and plays a different kind of role, a little active throughout more of the book. But at the very end of this book, moreover, is a passage. And it really reminds me of this.
Starting point is 00:41:31 And it's actually about a painting, by the way. But the painting is really important, you know, art. Upon the mountain, as the blizzards closed in, there was a red glow in the snow. It was there all winter. And when the spring gales blew, the rubies glittered in the snow it was there all winter and when the spring gales blew the rubies glittered in the sunshine no one remembers the singer the song remains interesting old man's character is so important it represents generations of stories and magic possibly passed down and now being
Starting point is 00:41:58 reawakened in bran and storytelling throughout the entire story i mean keeping some of this magic and lore alive look at danny's chapters right with the dragons yeah i mean that's storytelling brought to life absolutely absolutely and that is a really interesting quote that you have there with the no one remembers the singer the song remains think of the singers of the forest yeah exactly and i feel like is brand storyline to an extent about remembering yeah the singers and also even sansa's right because she she loves this she's like i'm gonna remember the singer so much that they're gonna stay here for life that's my girl that's how much i will remember them but uh i mean that's something that i am curious about
Starting point is 00:42:44 what happened for sure in the story what happens to old nan after the boltons come i still have hope here's how old man can still win and i hope that bran and the storks when they return they remember that singer they remember her and honor her in some way or try to find her right yeah i mean she's as much a part of their family as anyone she could still be alive. Yeah, I'm holding out hope that old Nan lives forever. So I can't even fathom anything else right now. I refuse to. I don't even want to be creative about it. So we'll move on. Well, yeah, the part where she stares at what she thinks is their heads and like, just flaps her lips like in disbelief. That kills me.
Starting point is 00:43:24 Yeah. Yeah, it's awful and i don't know why is this because i talked about the dog i don't know i think it's um because i had this one drink but i am thinking of having another good good good maester lewin announces that they have visitors tyrian lannister and some men of the Night's Watch have come with word from Jon Snow. Hodor helps Bran down to the hall. While Bran laments missing his stories, he's very upset, which I totally get.
Starting point is 00:43:54 When I miss my stories, I get very cross. That's how I feel when my shows get interrupted. I'm like, let me watch the episode. I just want Love Island, Eliana says. Actually, literally. I'm almost at the finale. Luan and Nan both tell him he may learn new stories if he goes
Starting point is 00:44:10 downstairs. He wonders if Hodor would shrivel up like his great-grandmother someday, but doubts it. Me too. Hodor will not, because he's gonna die, like, within the next few years. I mean, he might shrivel up when his body is torn to shreds. You think it's gonna be torn to shreds? Maybe, we don't know. But then it will never shrivel up when his body is torn to shreds. You think it's going to be torn to shreds?
Starting point is 00:44:25 Maybe, we don't know. But then it will never shrivel, right? I mean, it definitely becomes a smaller... Nothing makes you more expansive than being torn apart in different... Anyways. I do also like this point where they're saying, Bran, come down, you might learn other stories right there. I think that's important to hear other people's stories in general,
Starting point is 00:44:45 but also that people can bring and make new ones and that will play out, I think, in a couple of different ways, but also one way that is very fun is in the context of how Jojen tells a story of the turning at Harrenhal, right?
Starting point is 00:45:02 Like, he's like, are you sure you haven even heard this story before? And yeah, so I think that's important. Yeah, I love that. It comes back to that generational storytelling being such an important part of Bran's story in general. And it is a story, what he goes downstairs and sees. And it's something that we really talked about thoroughly in our Amber Spyglass episodes for His Dark Materials.
Starting point is 00:45:29 If you're a fan of that series, please go check it out. But there's a really common theme in that story. No spoilers of tell them stories. Right. Tell them stories that belief in a thing, you know, it brings it back. It brings back hope. It brings back safety for people you had said something in it that was really poignant i know this is gonna shock you uh is this from one of our old episodes again from our his our his dark materials episode i want to say 23 but you talk about how the simplicity of childhood memories are so full
Starting point is 00:46:06 of emotions, not just for the characters, but for the readers, right? That these are stories we're hearing about for the very first time, and it'll create a sense of nostalgia for us as we go on our journey. And that was about His Dark Materials, but it's true here too, that Bran gets to live these stories someday, and Jon lives these stories. And some of the other characters will too. And we'll see that. And this chapter lays a foundation for that nostalgia, in my opinion.
Starting point is 00:46:33 Yeah. Nan had once told Bran that Hodor's real name was Walder. That no one knew where Hodor had come from. But when he started saying it, and it was the only thing he was able to say, they began to call him by it. Suspicious. Interesting his name's Walter. Yeah. They leave Nan and Rob is sitting in his father's high seat wearing his own lord's face and outfit. And the anger is palpable in the room as soon as Bran enters.
Starting point is 00:47:01 Not because of Bran, because of Tyr. Yeah, I love that you can kind of, there's a lot in this chapter, George does a really, it's a fun job what he does that he's like, I don't know how to fucking write this. So I'm not going to and I'm just gonna say Bran doesn't understand what's going on. I'm gonna write about other events and Bran, Bran himself doesn't know this is happening. And then we do, though. Like, we as the audience do know, right? Like, we understand the anger where Bran at first in certain situations, he's like, huh, didn't know what's happening.
Starting point is 00:47:32 Didn't know why everyone's mad. Does he know that there was an assassination attempt on his life at this point? I don't think so. Oh, interesting. He knows from the vision. Maybe he knows something happened, but but i mean he doesn't know that tyrian would have been involved technically no one knows that tyrian would have been involved even tyrian and but like does he even know that i mean maybe like there's a part of him that knows
Starting point is 00:47:59 about the cat's walk because of summer but like maybe he doesn't know no because cat's not there when he wakes up yeah and maybe rob was like i can't deal with telling my brother that this i mean understandably so that's a pretty big thing to carry every vision he had in that last chapter too is so heavy yeah and it's so much trauma and it's like him processing all of it but also not at all so especially because this chapter comes back with that kind of vision and the trauma surrounding it. I imagine maybe, maybe he doesn't. That's a good point. I mean, there is a lot of repressed trauma in this chapter, as we're going to get to in a second.
Starting point is 00:48:37 Yeah. And in Bran. Any man of the Night's Watch is welcome here at Winterfell for as long as he wishes to stay, Rob was saying with the voice of Rob the Lord. His steel is bared across his lap. Even Bran knew what that meant to an unwanted guest. There's something interesting about how Rob is saying, you know, these are confidently said, the things he's saying, but later when he gets awkward after the kerfluffle with Tyrion,
Starting point is 00:49:04 when everything goes a little awry for just a hot second, you kind of notice that he gets flustered. And Bran even notices. He's like, again, George is like, Bran doesn't notice many things, but Bran noticed this. I'm like, damn, George, we get it. He's eight. I mean, I still feel like that sometimes. I walk into a room and I'm like, vibes off, why? Vibes off, why?
Starting point is 00:49:27 That's all of Bran. But he notices. He's like, oh, Rob feels weird right now. And he's just reciting speech. And Rob is doing a lot of mimicking, right, of the things he's seen his father do in this chapter as he tries on that lord's face and figures out how he's supposed to rule and not only does he do that but very soon he also gives bran a chance to do it which i really respect that's actually a favorite part of this chapter for me but the words he says here are very interesting because they're very memorized words the words that he's heard his father say
Starting point is 00:50:00 any man of the night's watch is welcome here at winterfell for as long as he wishes to stay Hmm. Who do we know that's in the Night's Watch? Yeah. I mean, that's something that we, I think, discussed, like, would Rob welcome John back, etc. And absolutely, a couple people are in the Night's Watch from his family. We'll talk about one of them in a second. But obviously says that and that's winterfell stance even now that rob is rip rust in peace rob for real actually also pieces piece now that rob's gone eliana now that he's gone um you know even just in general with john coming back to winterfell yeah now later his vows whether
Starting point is 00:50:47 it's a dance of dragons the winds of winter a dream of spring maybe even for endgame he would always be welcome back at winterfell i like to think so i would hope so if queen sansa said so yeah i respect her you know it's up to. But also, you said something about it being like these rehearsed words. And I realize also, like, I don't know that Rob has had to hold this like court like this or welcome guests in this manner yet since Kat has left. This is a big one to hold. Yeah, this is a very stressful first run. Well, he's been going to other courts which is a different thing i guess in some aspects but he has like been going to other hold fast yeah and well also it's the first time to
Starting point is 00:51:32 have people from the knights watch i guess and this is he does like try to say it in earnest but again he's like not it's a stressful this was a stressful first time to try those words out yeah because tyrian and rob are going back and forth and tyrian is like oh as you said to me before your lack of courtesies i've never said that to you you're the courteous one oh interesting now she's reverse psychology have i have i said that saying john clearly got their father's graces uh and that's kind of an insult he's like wow the bastard's much more polite than you rob interesting that's kind of funny because i guess he has to be right you kind of have to be when you have the lower station and learn to be more courteous you have to compensate yeah well yeah
Starting point is 00:52:15 you have to like fucking blow smoke up people's asses something else that i really like about this line is about you know besides calling him out and him being a bastard and having to do that uh as you're saying john getting that aspect from ned because again talking about how ned is john's father figure right and learning those graces being like his daddy even though maybe ned's not his biological father i I love that. And there's also that echo that like, everybody expects him to be uncouth because he's a dirty, gross, motherless, damned bastard. But realistically, his mom was being bedded by
Starting point is 00:52:56 the future king slash king at some point, possibly through deposition. You know, like Rhaegar. I mean, she obviously had enough you know like yeah rhaegar i mean she obviously had enough couth to bed rhaegar and know what maybe a wild dragon prince might like i don't know i just think it's an interesting connection too that like also his mom wasn't just like some some chick no she was also a knight i'm some chick but leona stark not just some chick no absolutely a lady a knight a queen she's every woman it's all in her all in her maybe she's worth it you know or wait
Starting point is 00:53:34 when no no maybe she's born with it oh my gosh it's maybelline anyways but you know his mom royal shit he's a royal child. Royal bastard. He knows his courtesies, goddammit. He does. He forgets them for a second in those earlier chapters, but then he figures it out. Which is kind of Bran in this chapter. That's true.
Starting point is 00:53:58 I mean, that's kind of anyone being younger. I got scolded a lot. Yeah, same. You know, just being mouthy. Yeah. Saying shit you shouldn't. Yeah, absolutely. All the time just being mouthy. Yeah. Saying shit you shouldn't. Yeah, absolutely. All the time. I do it every day.
Starting point is 00:54:07 And you know, I had to really learn to internalize that lesson from Bambi. If you ain't got nothing nice to say, don't say nothing at all. Glad it's that lesson. Worried about the other lessons, like dying. From Bambi? Yeah. I don't remember the other lessons. That's how much that one stuck with me. Dying? Yeah, mom dies and then the king of the forest and then I don't know the other lessons. That's how much that one stuck with me. Dying. Yeah, mom dies, and then the king of the forest, and then, I don't know.
Starting point is 00:54:28 Hunting's bad. Speaking of death, hearing that Jon is alive is amazing for Bran. He gasps audibly, and Tyrion turns to look at him, and he's kind of surprised. He's like, oh, you are still alive. You're alive. Interesting. He's like, I wondered if that was true. And he says, you starks are hard
Starting point is 00:54:47 to kill rob says you lannisters had best remember that and lowers his sword well they don't rip also unrip and then unrip again but also yeah rip again too and then someone else rip and then another unrip yeah this. This family's complicated. Every time a Stark is born, the gods flip a coin. And they say, are you going to die and come back to life? Are you going to die early? Yeah. We just don't know.
Starting point is 00:55:16 Rob calls for Hodor to bring Bran forward, seating him in the high seat of the Starks. Oh, I love this so much. This little passage got me. This is where the Lords of Winterfell had once sat when they had called themselves King in the North. The carved heads of direwolves snarl on its arms and Bran clasps them.
Starting point is 00:55:36 He feels like half a baby in this giant chair. It's so big. Aw. Robb tells Tyrion to approach Bran with the business he claims to have with him, and he does. Bran's kind of uncomfortable under Tyrion's gaze Bran with the business he claims to have with him, and he does. Bran's kind of uncomfortable under Tyrion's gaze, his black and green eyes. And Tyrion asks him if he remembers anything about his fall.
Starting point is 00:55:54 He doesn't. And Rob cuts that short and tells him, get to the fucking point. Don't ask my brother questions, don't presume. Tyrion had brought plans for a saddle, a saddle he'd designed, that might give Bran an opportunity to ride once more. I do want to quickly call out, you know, how we linger on Tyrion's eye colors there for a second
Starting point is 00:56:14 because we are covering and by that, by covering I mean House of the Dragon is on right now. And we have covered. We also did cover House of the Dragon. Not sorry, we did did cover house of the dragon not sorry we did cover the dance of the dragons that's true way back in the day yeah so the blacks and the greens over at patreon but that's a great point i think uh there's i mean tyrian's very much a proponent
Starting point is 00:56:37 in both sides of the blacks versus the greens right of dan versus aegon to come or stannis versus retin wait a second yeah well tyrian was like when he was on that boat he's like i think i will cause problems on purpose yeah absolutely that was his black eye versus his green eye yeah he made this happen but kind of literally and i mean illyrio's rings back and forth the jade the tourmaline the wildfire in a clash with tyrian and the color of shaggy dog here even that he has become black with green that's so interesting that he has green eyes i don't know what it means yet well and also that we get this against tyrian right i think it's literal black water coloring and yeah realistically i think it might connect to davos in that length as well
Starting point is 00:57:22 you know eventually maybe not intentionally that might be a garden thing, but black and green symbolism and Davos going to find Shaggy Dog and Rickon. Absolutely, and I mean, like, Circe's known for wearing green dresses a lot still at this time. So, yeah, the Lannisters
Starting point is 00:57:39 are just as associated with, I think, they're not only associated with the color red and gold is shown throughout the story a lot i mean not to dance with the dragons it but the greens i mean yeah i'm not i definitely think raniera has a lot of parallels with danny and cersei but i'm starting to come around to some of the alicent and cersei parallels as well that do exist of being married to the king suffering the king and you know trying to take power through what little extensions you have available to you and i'm starting to see some
Starting point is 00:58:11 of that in her character uh and not dissimilar from cattle and in some aspects and yeah and they're also showing they were showing and have pointed out for the show and the show's portrayal of rainiera how she may or may not be similar to Arya as well which also makes a lot of sense but yeah I do think we were discussing this before recording that the blacks and the greens of the eyes from Tyrion I don't think that
Starting point is 00:58:36 George had the dance planned then but I kind of wondered did he take inspiration from this from Tyrion's eyes and use that to kind of garden his way into the factions of the dance. But he also might just like those colors. I also said
Starting point is 00:58:51 this might be a football thing that I don't know anything about. I will argue not specifically the eye color being for the blacks and the like the blacks and the greens being those factions. I don't know if that was 100% ironed out in details but he did have the dance planned we had that's true yeah yeah we had the king's guard last
Starting point is 00:59:09 episode so he had ideas he was probably starting to fill in some of these ideas he yeah he probably had the dance because i think it does come up right it does come up in book one but uh or like some sort of some of that inheritance stuff. But the factions, obviously... I don't think we even got that until the Princess and the Queen came out. Yeah. For the Blacks and the Greens. But it had been marinating. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:59:33 That's all I'm saying. He'd been thinking on it. Yeah. And I think because Tyrion, as you said, plays such a key role in it. It makes sense to kind of build it out from there. Bran is a little offended because Tyrion is like, you know, with the right saddle, even a cripple could ride. Bran doesn't like that.
Starting point is 00:59:54 He says, I'm not a cripple. And Tyrion says, then I am not a dwarf. My father will rejoice to hear it. Maester Luwin, though, kind of breaks through the tension and what feels like an insult. He kind of says, I do love Maester Luwin. He's very thoughtful here. He asks what sort of horse and saddle
Starting point is 01:00:14 is being suggested. And Tyrion says, the boy cannot use his legs to command the animal, so you must shape the horse to the rider. Teach it to respond to the reins, to the voice. I would respond to the reins to the voice i would begin with an unbroken yearling with no old training to be unlearned he drew a
Starting point is 01:00:30 rolled paper from his belt give this to your saddler he will provide the rest i love this for so many reasons bran's not gonna ride a horse though like much right he does for the first time and then in his mind he actually turns to riding his wolf like tyrian says though you must shape the horse to the rider teach it to respond to the reins to the voice that's what brand learns to do with his power with being able to see through summer's eyes he He teaches Summer to respond to his mind, and they're much more powerful. Later, he tells Summer they'll be able to hunt, and they are, but in a much different way. I also like this because it shows Tyrion's knowledge for dragons
Starting point is 01:01:15 that we're told about in A Game of Thrones and Clash especially, and how he may have input for Daenerys on her dragons, right? Like he says, the reins, the voice, all the things Dany is just beginning to learn or might need to start learning a little more of. Showing his skill at designing saddles kind of also says to me that he'll be designing dragon saddles for certain. I think a lot of people have kind of theorized about this around the fandom and other places, but he's got to make dragon saddles and reins for the dragons. I mean, I hope so. As people
Starting point is 01:01:44 pointed out in game of thrones they're like dang all these uh targaryens and house of the dragon they have saddles for their dragons and poor daenerys was just clinging on for dear life bareback girl i know right and i mean it makes sense you got cling hard. So it's like the dragons cannot respond to legs, right? As Tyrion is talking about with this horse. So it responds to voice commands and Daenerys has to kind of like aggravate it to turn. And there's also, I don't know what you think about this, theories that Bran will skin change a dragon.
Starting point is 01:02:22 Some people see this as a foreshadowing of that. I always found that interesting. I don't know that he will. And if it is, I don't think it will be like I don't know. I think it would be to stop it or save it or something. Something to, you know, a stepping in kind of action.
Starting point is 01:02:40 I don't think he would do it willingly or on purpose necessarily. I don't know. I don't know. I don't think it's for necessarily. I don't know. I don't know. I don't think it's for him. I don't really know. I've just seen it come up a lot. Yeah, that's a good question. What I really like about this scene, and especially that little exchange between Tyrion and Bran regarding cripples
Starting point is 01:03:00 and then how Tyrion throws back, well, then I am not a dwarf, is the way that the word cripple is used there and this idea of reclaiming your own story, this idea of reclamation of words as well. It's one thing to hear the stories of others and to learn the way that the world functions through those stories and what those narratives say that your place in that world is.
Starting point is 01:03:23 And it is another thing entirely to take that decide that that's not the story you want rewrite it especially to rewrite your own and to have that courage to be its own author right like for example tyrian's brother jamie uh rewriting his trying to rewrite himself uh and his own future and who he's becoming realizing well maybe i should have an active role in this. Whatever he wrote. Exactly. I don't care about him. Sorry.
Starting point is 01:03:57 So if others can bring new stories and can deliver new stories when they come here, surely that means Bran can one day realize, I too can make new stories of my own. realize i too can make new stories of my own one of his that he decides one where he gets to give himself a place and a name and characterize it and even though tyrian is kind of teaching him to reclaim narratives around these different words um and things that he might see as like an insult which is what tyrian teaches john it's wonderful how he teaches these two brothers, these two kings, if you will. It's sad because Tyrion doesn't really internalize his own lessons himself, right? We see it especially in some of the Slonza chapters and has the rest of the world in King's Landing really beat down on him. His own family especially does.
Starting point is 01:04:43 And how others are always trying to voice their own narrative of him as a monster onto him and i think that's also why penny is such a powerful character in tyrian story because she's someone who reshapes the world to center her experiences i love that so much oh i kind of can't wait for tyrian chapters whenever they happen no one knows yeah he's very flawed and i really love that about him and also hate it about him right like he pisses me off too and that's why i really like tyrian i think he is a great complex character in that way and this is good this is so great this is like he's standing in the face of these slightly judgmental people.
Starting point is 01:05:27 Because they are a little judgy. I love the starts, but I'm the first to admit they're a little judgy. They're very judgy. And I mean, they've created a narrative of who they think Tyrion is based on the rest of the Lannisters. And based on this story that Littlefinger has created of him. It's funny because Bran's been listening to stories all day. And yet he should have known not to judge one by the cover. his brother should have too having grown up in the same world you know they should both have maybe thought a little bit to not judge the book by its cover but they're judging they are and yeah so that's the story we have so lewin compliments tyrian's
Starting point is 01:06:00 design and he says this should work which is amazing right like if Lewin says yes that's intensely incredible Tyrion says it's not unlike his own saddles and what works for him with his body I actually really love the way this is framed because Lewin kind of like thinks as he's looking at it and apparently we just glanced over that Tyrion besides in the first book being like an acrobat is very good at drawing. And we never come back to that. I mean, in a way, right? Like, the plans for the Blackwater, he's an architect.
Starting point is 01:06:31 Yeah, that's true. That's true. He's a builder. I just want to see Tyrion sketching and, you know, being an artist, which... Oh my god. Doesn't matter, I guess, to the story at all. He went to Columbia. Tyrion's an artist but lewin remarks upon seeing these that he's like oh i should have thought of this myself and yeah but also i don't know that lewin could
Starting point is 01:06:55 have and not in the same way tyrian did like of course it doesn't occur to him and he wouldn't have made as good of a design as tyrian because Tyrion bringing this up and having such a well-made design for it is showing the importance of having different perspectives when it comes to in general creating anything whether when you're designing for someone who has a different experience as you whether that's like um in terms of life experiences or being like disabled right Tyrion knows that better than Luwin. And everyone here at Winterfell has just been kind of like, you know, doing things to like make Bran's experiences shape their own.
Starting point is 01:07:37 And I'm, I mean, they don't have like disability rights, you know, in Westeros, but. They barely have any rights. Right. But Tyrion is doing something that actually caters and centers Bran's experience in this design.
Starting point is 01:07:51 Yeah, I do love that wording specifically, that I should have done this. Oh, why didn't I think of this? It would have never occurred to you to think that we could remake the world to make it more accessible for someone else yeah which i mean that's the story right that's true that is the story bran asks if he's going to truly be able
Starting point is 01:08:14 to ride he's sick of disappointment right and the crow has lied he feels and he wants to know if this is another lie the dwarf says you will and i swear to you boy on horseback you will be as tall as any of them which i think is great coming from tyrian who he himself will not ever either you know he's had to come and kind of confront that of what how his stature will be later we'll see bran has a little bit one last dream vision right And the dream vision he has comes out with a shadow at the end of it looming over him. And as Tyrion says, you know, a very small man can cast a very long shadow, is said to Tyrion by Varys. And Bran's not dissimilar.
Starting point is 01:09:00 And I think Jon sees it of Tyrion too, right? Isn't there that image where Tyrion's shadow is as big as a king's and- Literally on the wall. Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, not only that, for Tyrion to say that also on horseback, it also kind of contextualizes why, or puts into a different light, his love for the gift he got from Jaime, which was that horse. Which is all Bran cares about right now. Yeah, like for Tyrion, it was a horse he could ride and on it he was as tall as anyone in his family and his brother. And that's all he wants to do in this scene, right?
Starting point is 01:09:37 He wants to give that freedom and those chains that have confined his own life. He wants to be able to give some sort of semblance of that to someone else who's suffering that. And that's a different kindness than we see in a lot of the characters in the series. And Rob doesn't understand why Tyrion wants to help them. He could never. I mean, he couldn't. He asks, is this some sort of trap, Lannister?
Starting point is 01:10:00 And Tyrion says, no, I'm doing this because Jon asked me to. And Tyrion says, I'm doing it because I have a tender spot in my heart for cripples, bastards, and broken things. Which is the thesis of Aeswaf. Yeah, absolutely. That's the story. I mean, it's about cripples, bastards, and broken things. Absolutely.
Starting point is 01:10:19 And putting them back together. Yeah. As best you can. Even if you can't. Trying anyway. And learning to live with it. And that's very much Tyrion's story at some point. So sad.
Starting point is 01:10:34 It's a great story. God. It is, actually. Like, he's such a compelling character. And no wonder he's George's favorite character. Happy birthday, George. Happy birthday, George. Tyrion puts his
Starting point is 01:10:45 hand over his heart grinning and suddenly the door to the yard breaks open rick and stark it's just burst in with the dire wolves and then the dire wolves see tyrian and begin to growl summer first then gray one next and theon comments that the wolves don't seem to like his scent and tyrian steps back meaning to take his leave but Shaggydog is suddenly behind him and in the shadows, snarling. Tyrion recoils, and Summer lunges on the other side. Greywind takes a snap at his sleeve and tears his cloth over, and Bran shouts, No, Summer, to me! And the dark wolf glances at him, creeping backward, settling.
Starting point is 01:11:21 Robb then recalls Greywind and lets out this sudden sigh. And finally, Shaggy dog is left brand tells rickon to call him back and rickon screams home shaggy home now tears are like streaming out of my eyes imagining rickon because the language is screamed rickon screamed so imagine a toddler or like a three four year old just home shaggy home now just top of his lungs in this fucking hall with acoustics going like crazy chaotic this is chaotic he is chaotic uh the wolves really seem to absorb their anxieties already right even more subconsciously and especially in the next bit we'll talk about and interesting that summer almost leads here right like everybody calms the fuck down because bran calms summer down yeah well i think like i think well we'll talk about this in a
Starting point is 01:12:11 second but they talk about how it seemed like rob had been holding his breath that time it's very interesting i think that uh some of how this the wolves react it's a very it's very pointed based on what we see happens every time the wolves are like really uneasy and part of me wonders if it's a remnant of the 1993 letter tyrian who ends up taking and sacking winterfell very much like the storyline of theon in the story that we actually get but i would not be surprised if george has taken you know some of the beats that he planned for theon and for theon and tyrian and like kind of combines them until a later tyrian uh whispering into denarius's ears about winterfell oh that's really interesting because he knows the castle now he knows the castle but also like in terms of politically, and of course, Tyrion does have a claim, theoretically.
Starting point is 01:13:07 I didn't even think about it. He could press it. You better take that claim and put it in the garbage disposal, Mr. Clannister. I would not be surprised if the Tyrion that we start seeing form in Book 5 presses the claim. Don't press the button. Don't do it. He has that weird love triangle with Arya in the 93 letter. And now it's just Sansa and Dany instead. Yeah, then it becomes not a love triangle,
Starting point is 01:13:31 but like an inheritance triangle or something. So I do think that's a possibility. Or Dany presses it for him. That's also possible. Or both. I mean, I could see Tyrion doing it. Yeah. Adds a good Tyrion doing it. Yeah. Adds a good shade to his character.
Starting point is 01:13:48 Yeah. Unlike the Meow Meowification of Tyrion in Game of Thrones. If you thought that was bad, wait till the Meow Meowification of Chloe on Girls Gone Canon about Tyrion. Actually, for real, though. It's my baby Meow Meow. My poor baby meow meow. Speaking of their this is more of a baby woof woof.
Starting point is 01:14:12 Woof woof. We have Rikken going home now. Instead of saying to me, I thought that was a, A, that's the most adorable choice of words. And as you're talking about a toddler just screaming home now, and i kind of like the idea of it as home being a person very much like that edward sharp and the magnetic zero song that everyone loved 15 years ago that
Starting point is 01:14:34 was everywhere home is with you alabama arkansas yeah okay so I like the idea of home as this movable concept and being more about the people than the place because they're always starks no matter what they shed of themselves or where they go
Starting point is 01:14:57 they're always starks and the pack survives ish a better slogan rip then unrip. And then rip again and unrip again. Tyrion, scowling, puts himself a little bit back together as one of his men ask if he's okay. Yeah, is he okay? Shit.
Starting point is 01:15:17 A little shaken, not stirred. He says he's fine, save for his dignity. And even Rob. Because he's pissed himself. Right. he's fine save for his dignity and even rob pissed himself right rob looks really shaken and he's like i don't know why the wolves attacked you i and tyrian's like i must have looked like dinner and i will be leaving now that rob is shaken because he feels it it makes me wish even more we had the rob as stated and as discussed in our Rob Patreon episode, because he knew.
Starting point is 01:15:46 I mean, all these other chapters, we get this. Even when Bran slept, he told Cat that Bran needs to hear the wolves sing, that it will make him healthier if he hears the wolves singing. And he tells his mom, he's like, you can tell them apart if you listen, and he's very in tune with the wolves. And we'll talk about it next week in Bran 5 because he tells brand sometimes i think they know things sense
Starting point is 01:16:10 things and he tells him he'll tell him more when he's older he'll understand more when he's older not unlike i guess ned and john's last talk right oh interesting yeah but when you're older you'll understand and then he goes off and dies well technically brand's older by the time i guess he starts understanding yeah so he's not like the next book or two he's older um i also yeah i do think that's so interesting because yeah part of it is the wolves reacting to the anxiety on rob's part but as you said wish we had gotten his pov i kind of been wondering because of rob being so shaken and the part where it says he held his breath, is this the first time Rob's skin changed when it was on accident? It worked on accident.
Starting point is 01:16:52 Well, yeah, because did he see himself attacking Tyrion in his head and thought it was a fantasy? Kind of maybe like, oh, you know, another king fantasizing about and having dreamt killing his brother, waking up and being like, oh, fuck, that was real. Real? Question mark? Real? Yeah. That's interesting.
Starting point is 01:17:13 Having the Stannis thought of like, oops, I accidentally. I love it. I would love to know that. That's a George question right there. I don't think he will answer it. He'd be like, keep reading. Keep reading for a deeper understanding. No, he will not answer. He'd be like, keep reading, keep reading for a deeper understanding. No, he will not answer. He'll be like, what if a thousand theories
Starting point is 01:17:28 reign? And I'll be like, George, happy birthday. Happy birthday, George! I was gonna say it. I'm glad you said it. Maester Luwin asks him to wait one moment and then mutters something to Rob, who sheathes his sword and kind of gives a little apology almost for his haste behavior
Starting point is 01:17:43 that the hospitality of winterfell is tyrian's if he wishes it but tyrian's like spare me your courtesies the lies all the lies i know you don't want me here and i'll stay in outside of winterfell and support the economy of the north instead yeah i respect tyrian like i know you don't want me here i'm gonna leave yeah interesting that tyrian's willing to turn down and consent to Robb's false court courtesies, but he isn't able to do so when it comes to either Sansa or Shae.
Starting point is 01:18:12 Or he willfully ignores it with Shae. Sansa is underestimating her. That is interesting. I didn't think about that. And there's something brotherly going on there and sisterly i hates to say it what do you mean like of the lannister family and their toxic
Starting point is 01:18:32 codependence on one another in that like he doesn't feel the need to impress rob the eldest brother because he is you know the next in line himself he doesn't feel you know a jamie he just doesn't feel that competition so much from a brother that's true yeah i think i guess he doesn't feel the need to impress rob he doesn't care about rob's opinion because rob is someone who had it all handed to him but he cares about john's opinion yeah that says a lot he makes plans to meet with yoran the next day on the road south, and his men follow him out. Rob then speaks awkwardly to the four remaining Night's Watch men, offering them hearth and amenities, and they thank him all the same, awkward or not. Yeah, it's as we were saying earlier, this is a tough first time for Rob to have to do this.
Starting point is 01:19:21 It just kind of shows how inexperienced he is, right? This just kind of shows how inexperienced he is, right? And also gives us an idea of the importance of hospitality in this culture, especially from Winterfell to the ball. To the spot. To all these balls. To all these females crawl. Bran gets carried to bed after this, and Hodor then takes old Nan to bed.
Starting point is 01:19:41 It's very sweet. She had fallen asleep in her chair. Same. Bran calls for Summer, telling the wolf he can ride now. They can go hunting, wait and see, and oh, you will. Oh, the places you'll go, Fran. He sleeps, dreaming of scaling the broken tower. And this, I think, goes a little to that 93 letter, too, Eliana.
Starting point is 01:20:00 His fingers between blackened stones, burnt stones, if you will, climbing through the clouds into the night sky. Looking down, he cries out, thinking he could not fly. He could not fly. And he then begins to climb again once he gets his breath back. Far above a pale moon, he thinks he sees gargoyles watching him, eyes glowing red and hot. He thinks maybe they were once lions, but now twisted, grotesque.
Starting point is 01:20:27 He can hear them whispering in soft stone voices. The gargoyles pull themselves to where he clings and he weeps saying, I didn't hear, I didn't, I didn't. And he wakes gasping in the darkness, a dark shadow looming over him. Trauma. Bran's subconscious bringing up the Lannister repression memory, right, going on there with some wicked imagery. Tyrion manifesting in it, a grotesque twisted gargoyle of a lion, and of course, kind of being the place where the crime occurred, conflating these two acts as one in his subconscious, not unlike what Catelynan and rob both have done as we kind of talked about of course after flatlining the the scariness into a metaphor in his mind he wakes up to hodor's shadow but looming over bran is a dark shadow on the wall one could say and it does of course
Starting point is 01:21:18 bring up very saying power resides where men believe it resides no more no less so power is a mummer's trick a shadow on the wall yet shadows can kill and oft times a very small man can cast a very large shadow and some of the imagery reminds me of crescent's chapter when we think about the maesters accepting magic he says talking gargoyles and prophecies in the sky, I am an old Dunman grown giddy as a child again. Had a lifetime's hard-won wisdom fled him, along with his health and strength? And lastly, I want to point out that it looks a little bit like the Stone Drum. In Davos's chapter, we see,
Starting point is 01:22:00 In place of Merlins, a thousand grotesques and gargoyles look down on him, each different from the others. Wyverns, griffins, demons, manticores, minotaurs, basilisks, hellhounds, cockatrices, and a thousand queerer creatures crowded from the castles' battlements as if they'd grown there, and the dragons were everywhere. The Great Hall was a dragon lying on its belly. Men entered through its open mouth great imagery yeah it is it is and very interesting and it is very pointed for it to come in the context of tyrian but it is kind of strange that it's like melded together with as you pointed out right the lannister siblings i mean he's a Lannister sibling yeah yeah but
Starting point is 01:22:45 but I guess it makes sense right like they're adjacent people and ideas they're in the same family so like for him to be there could trigger you know a little bit of the other thing but again Bran's not ready to touch that memory yet and this is again one of those things that makes me wonder if it's another artifact of the 1993 letter. The way that Tyrion's visit kind of triggers all this imagery because especially of the gargoyles and the grotesques. Because Tyrion is described as grotesque often. And that is pointed, especially because you were tying it to Dragonstone, right? Yeah. And the gargoyles that are there.
Starting point is 01:23:27 Because grotesque literally means gargoyles. There's some differences between the two, but oftentimes people will use these terms interchangeably. They are synonyms. Grotesque, as a noun, is also a gargoyle. But the idea that these used to be lions and it being about the Lannisters at large is very interesting yeah very transformative and the the sack really rings true I feel like I'm like oh the idea of Tyrion sacking Winterfell is loud right here and obviously he's not doing that anymore that's we don't have time we don't have time when is Tyrion gonna sack
Starting point is 01:24:04 Winterfell in the same way it's it has already been sacked what is he gonna take what is he gonna do that has not already been done ramsey did it first sorry bro yeah ramsey did it first and and took revenge for the starks as you've said the shadow is hodor here to take him to the feast in the great hall post nap hodor wipes his sweat with a damp cloth dresses him and down they go robin brand sit across from one another next to the lord seat which they leave empty because no one can fulfill ned's seat i cry they eat suckling pig pigeon pie turnips and butter and later honeycombs for dessert brand feeds his wolf under the table while graywin and shaggy fight over a bone in the corner.
Starting point is 01:24:47 This fucking kills me. Give me a suckling pig. Can you just smell the juices? Yeah, absolutely. And like, also like the other, you know, like I'm thinking of the Night's Watch. We'll get there. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:24:58 Yeah. Winterfell's dogs would not come near the hall now. Bran found that strange at first, but he was growing used to it. So sad that just once they grow used to it, Winterfell gets sacked and burned and taken by the Boltons because in A Dance with Dragons Reek 2, we have the dogs fighting over whatever scraps Ramsey thought to send them
Starting point is 01:25:19 in the corner of the hall and how Theon is the only one you know not watching dogs everyone is staring at the dogs while he watches ramsey what a different environment it was in winterfell in book one versus book five you know the dogs are back the ultimate evil yeah very much does not look like home now it is a bad time we're not in winterfell anymore, Toto. Yeah, I don't know what the fuck this place is. Jorn is the most senior of the Black Brothers and is seated between Rob and Luin. Because of that, he smells sour as if he has eaten much recently or maybe bathed, which is possible. And rips at the meat with his teeth, eating the marrow. He's like sucking it from the bones as well.
Starting point is 01:26:07 And I love that detail that he's doing that, and also I think the other brothers are doing something similar because how often are they going to get to feast this good, right? Yeah, meat. Not just meat, just being at the wall, like, in marrow. Yeah, meat and, like, actual – they're getting every ounce of it that they can. Yeah, like that marrow butter and i was telling you about i know i watched it the other day on tiktok me and emmet watched all of them and you watched all the butter videos as many as we could but listen back to bran and the
Starting point is 01:26:35 bone marrow here uh something interesting right with later bran's connection with blood sacrifice too and bone marrow coming up here does make me think of that and that was just off the cuff stay tuned for more but i'm still i'm still also on you watched all the butter videos anyways but it shows too that brand doesn't understand why yoren would smell bad like he does he doesn't understand what the night swatch is in his head he thinks it's like heroic he's like they take showers there or baths there and they're clean and they eat meat. And it's like, no, Bran, they're starving and winter's coming. And also it's like so cold maybe that they're like, you can't smell how bad the other people are.
Starting point is 01:27:12 Maybe that. It preserves. Jon Snow is brought up in conversation and Yoren calls him, you'll love this, Sir Alicer's Bane. His companions all laugh. Bran doesn't understand, but we do do they ask for news of benjen and yoren has bad news benjen is gone disappeared likely dead and rob doesn't take that well he reacts very negatively same very poorly i'd be upset too but uh very much the reaction is rob the boy not the lord yelling my uncle's not dead and the black brothers seem uncomfortable
Starting point is 01:27:43 the youngest speaks up he's like well there's not a man and the Black brothers seem uncomfortable. The youngest speaks up, and he's like, well, there's not a man who knows the forest better than Benjen. He'll find his way back. It's sad. We were talking earlier about how Rob's feeling a lot of pressure. He's at home alone trying to do all this stuff, and understandably, he's snapping, right? He can't bear the thought of losing even more family members, not in a permanent way when he's already trying to deal with the fact that uh he's
Starting point is 01:28:10 he's kind of losing them right now and has no one to support him and he therefore really really refuses to acknowledge the loss of benjen who probably isn't dead or not in that maybe on who knows but i don't think but he's not cold hands anyways the lesson of losing loved ones it is gonna come soon sooner than later it's gonna be this i'm like buckle up rob buckle up and it's gonna hit these poor boys sooner than they expect and very quick yoren rebuts that good men have gone in those woods and never returned maybe he would maybe he wouldn't don't know can't really bet on it the gods slip a coin all bran can think of are nan's stories and he blurts out maybe the children will help him the children of the forest and everyone's like and then we the readers are like but what if
Starting point is 01:29:00 yeah we're like oh that's so funny. Because yeah. Yes. Sion laughs and Luin more charitably is like, well, they're all dead, sweetheart. They live in the trees now. That's where they live. Because that makes more sense. Also true. Yoren, though, has a different view.
Starting point is 01:29:19 Down here might be that's true, maester. But up past the wall, who's to say up there a man can't always tell what's alive and what's dead kills me that ned like hosted these men all the time and they just had cryptic things at him he's like i just can't figure it out what do they mean yeah maybe he was just like interesting maybe he just said cryptic things back and like they all just like went around and said ridiculous stuff. And then nothing happened. Yeah. Amazing.
Starting point is 01:29:49 Well, there was left cryptic stuff going on back then too. The shape of Bran's arc with magic. I love examining that, especially with the greenseers and the children and this introduction to them. In book one, he kind of gets introduced to the magic and he's told it's not real by everybody. But book two, he's starting to think maybe it could be real. And suddenly, the side characters that are very related to magic appear and they're like, you've been lied to, Bran. Magic is real.
Starting point is 01:30:17 By book's end, though, no one's listening to him and it's too late for him to save, you know, the people he loves. Everything crashes down upon him even though he foresaw it coming book three is him forced out of his ancestral home on a horrifying adventure filled with discovery of his own abilities and sight and book five he gets kind of face to face with this magic and his jedi training arc and yada yada you can see he's very immersed in the magic so the seeds laid in a game of thrones compared to a dance of dragons are great they're well grown and look benjen doesn't need to be
Starting point is 01:30:51 cold hands that i get that but maybe he could be helped by the children like i i do think they obviously help bran they try to and we obviously find out they exist in Book 5. And coming back to Discworld again today, I think there's so much Discworld in Bran's plot. But from the very first Rincewind adventure novel, The Color of Magic, we have this passage. Dryads were supposed to have died out, along with gnomes and pixies. The background roar was louder here. Sometimes a pulsing golden glow would race up the translucent walls until it was lost in the haze overhead. Some power in the air made it vibrate. Now, incompetent wizard, said Druella, see some magic.
Starting point is 01:31:36 Not your weasel-faced taint magic, but root-and-branch magic. The old magic. Wild magic. Watch. magic the old magic wild magic watch 50 or so females formed a tight cluster joined hands and walked backwards until they formed the circumferences of a large circle the rest of the dryads began a low chant i i just love the idea of the old magic and the old ways in respecting that right the forgotten ancient magic of the north and that yoren here doesn't play with that he says oh it's there it's there son you like ghost stories get ready you're living in them no for real he is though are you reading discworld right now i've read like 30 of them maybe okay so you've read them in the past previously because you don't bring them up often so i thought it
Starting point is 01:32:23 was very interesting that it's come up a lot this episode well i'm saving them for bran okay i've been really saving a lot of this role for bran and for tyrian actually there's some tyrian stuff okay okay i was just curious because i'm sure it was like top of mind for you like because you're reading them right now i'm rereading some of them for brand especially because i think the magic and the classic pratchett you know storytelling pratchett had a lot of just really off the wall ideas that play with fantasy in a silly way making fun of the genre but also then you know still being in the genre and existing in those confines i don't know something classic but also something wild about pratchett that I really respect. I really love.
Starting point is 01:33:08 All right. That's cool. That's cool. And I like what you've laid out here of the arc of Bran's story from books one to five, not including four, because we skipped Bran for a season. But he's in there. No, he is in there, right?
Starting point is 01:33:23 Unlike in Game of Thrones. So something about the way that you laid it out i thought was really interesting about this idea of again innocence and childhood and like being introduced to magic because as you get older people say that life loses its magic a little in that same way but brin is kind of being told the opposite yeah it exists you have to go find it it exists you have to go find that it's not innocence but like something like that i don't know um sometimes you have to go on a fucking horrible journey to go find that magic yeah and the answers yeah then we come towards the end of the chapter with this really really emotional scene between these family members of
Starting point is 01:34:06 That night, after the plates had been cleared, Rob carried Bran up to bed himself. Greywyn led the way and Summer came close behind. His brother was strong for his age and Bran was as light as a bundle of rags, but the stairs were steep and dark, and Rob was breathing hard by the time they reached the top. He put Bran to bed, covered him with blankets, and blew out the candle. For a time, Rob sat beside him in the dark. Bran wanted to talk to him, but he did not know what to say. We'll find a horse for for you, I promise. Are they ever coming back? Yes, Rob said with such hope in his voice that Bran knew he was hearing his brother, not just Rob the Lord. Mother will be home soon. Maybe we can ride out to meet her when she comes. Wouldn't that surprise her, to see you, Horace? Even in the dark
Starting point is 01:35:02 room, Bran could feel his brother's smile. And afterward, we'll ride north to see a horse. Even in the dark room, Bran could feel his brother's smile. And afterward, we'll ride north to see the wolf. We won't even tell Jon we're coming. We'll just be there one day. You and me. It will be an adventure. An adventure, Bran repeated wistfully. He heard his brother sob.
Starting point is 01:35:22 The room was so dark he could not see the tears on Rob's face, so he reached out and found his hand, their fingers twined together. I'm sobbing. I am crying. What the fuck? Sobbing, crying, throwing up. Bram's chapters are literally the best chapters.
Starting point is 01:35:43 They're so sad. Being sad is so great. Oh my fucking god great it feels so bad and good at the same time I'm so sad don't you feel horrible? yeah I do why did we do this project? this project? I'm dropping out
Starting point is 01:35:58 they're not coming back none of them are but they are also poor Rob it's so sad okay Eliana They're not coming back. No, none of them are. But they are. Also poor Rob. Oh my god. It's so sad. It's so sad. Okay.
Starting point is 01:36:08 Eliana. Wow. Wait, are you crying? Yeah, I just fucking said that. Wait, no, but legitimately? Yeah, I was tearing up. Are you crying about Bran? And Rob.
Starting point is 01:36:17 Wow. And them being like, we're gonna go see them. And then he's like, it's gonna be an adventure. We're gonna surprise them. It's the fucking worst. But Eliana, we have so much to look forward to still. Even though this is horrible and they're all going to die. There's also that part.
Starting point is 01:36:32 They're all going to die. To quote a great poet. A great group of poets, truly. To quote the mountain goats. Okay, I'm like, which poets is she talking about? There's going to be a party when the wolf comes home. What kind of party? Hunting party?
Starting point is 01:36:52 Okay, no, not a hunting party. Listen, not that kind of party. It's going to be a good party. Search party? You made me watch that show. Did you finish that? No, absolutely not. What the fuck?
Starting point is 01:37:00 I watched all of it. Yeah, we watched all of it. Oh my god. I watched like a season. Anyways, anyways. We're getting off topic. It's all going to be okay. Is it?
Starting point is 01:37:08 Except for like maybe not. It's actually going to be bittersweet. George himself. Happy birthday. Happy birthday, George. Said so. Happy birthday, George. Happy birthday, George.
Starting point is 01:37:20 Thank you for writing this sad fucking chapter. An adventure. birthday, George. Thank you for writing this sad fucking chapter. An adventure. Thank you so much, everyone, for listening to Bran 4 in A Game of Thrones. It is a favorite. I am so happy to be covering Bran with you all. I look forward to
Starting point is 01:37:40 our next episode. We'll be back in October with Bran. We will be putting out something pre-released for you next week for patrons. Thanks patrons for unlocking that and keep your eyes peeled to find out what you'll get. It's a surprise. Truly.
Starting point is 01:37:55 It is a surprise but perhaps you also have thoughts. You would like to join the conversation. You can always find us on social media at twitter.com slash girlsgonecanon. That's C-A-N-O-N, where you can send us a tweet or a DM. Or you can also send us an email
Starting point is 01:38:13 that apparently I am thirsty for at girlsgonecanon at gmail.com. Eliana, don't advertise our email and say you're thirsty. That's so true. I'm sorry. Oh my God. This is a mistake.
Starting point is 01:38:22 Bots are going to find this and who knows what we're going to find our email the algorithm as always please make sure you're already following us or subscribe to us on a podcast platform near you that you enjoy listening to your podcasts on whether that is spotify stitcher acast itunes google play audible pandora i'm losing steam but you know they're out there, go take a look give us a google, you'll find us iHeartRadio, give us a google hit a google up
Starting point is 01:38:51 yes, and somewhere that you can definitely always find us is on Patreon, you can find us at patreon.com slash girlsgonecanon we're patrons in the stranger tier and above five dollars and above, do get a bonus episode each month. This month it is Mothers of the Dragon Part 2, Alysanne.
Starting point is 01:39:09 Yes, MILFs, MILFs, MILFs. And, of course, every Friday, our friend and patron Maddie hosts a House of the Dragon discussion over at Discord in the Voice channels, 2-m. ET for the Thunder tier, $10 tier and above. And you also get access to monthly events too, like brunch slash happy hour, which we will announce for October in the coming weeks. As always, I have been one of your hosts, Chloe. And I have been another one of your hosts, Eliana. Can't wait to come back in October to Bran for for the harvest the harvest comes oh yeah it is gonna
Starting point is 01:39:47 be harvest season i am thinking about you want to watch have you ever watched over the garden wall i'm watching it with you all right i'm in all right goodbye everyone goodbye it's gonna be a party when the wolf comes home

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.